"The NTTA has been our tollway authority. Others are trying to undo that."
Agency to handle tolls is considered
Group would allocate cash to projects that don't use road fees
Friday, November 11, 2005
By TONY HARTZEL
The Dallas Morning News
Copyright 2005
ARLINGTON – Area leaders took an important step Thursday toward creating a regional agency that could eventually shift money collected from toll roads to other projects.
The Regional Transportation Council will consider creating an umbrella financial agency covering from nine to 17 counties that could collect and distribute excess toll revenue to projects without tolls.
Such an arrangement would mark a dramatic shift from the practice of using toll money only to build other toll roads.
The transportation-funding concept, known as a regional mobility authority, has been adopted in several other areas of Texas in recent years to pay for new road and possibly rail construction. With the longstanding presence of the North Texas Tollway Authority, local officials have resisted the idea, saying the region could handle matters with existing agencies.
"We are at the point in our history where we have to reinforce that we are one region," said Michael Morris, director of transportation for the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
The idea of sharing toll revenue for other projects is beginning to take hold in the region. The tollway authority's board of directors will consider a proposal today that would allow it to pay the state $200 million to $345 million to build a toll road on State Highway 121 in Collin County. That money would be used to build other projects in the region or Highway 121 area.
The council will send a letter notifying the Texas Department of Transportation that it will take the first steps in reviewing the creation of a regional mobility authority for roads.
Regional resistance toward a mobility authority has eased recently because of several policy changes: The state transportation department now expects payments – usually in the hundreds of millions of dollars – if another agency builds a toll road on state property; and officials in Parker County, which lies within the proposed North Texas agency boundary, have proposed to create their own mobility authority.
In addition, a group of 22 state legislators has told local leaders that it appears highly unlikely that the region will be successful in its push to get a half-percent sales tax increase to use to build 260 miles of commuter rail.
"This source of revenue seems to be highly unlikely within the near future due to other needs for sales tax revenue at the state level," wrote Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, and Rep. Fred Hill, R-Richardson, in a letter to local officials that was co-signed by seven other state senators and 13 other state representatives.
If created, the agency as conceived by local officials would differ from mobility authorities in other parts of Texas, which have substantial power to select toll roads and oversee a host of transportation projects, including rail lines. In North Texas, the agency would have a more limited role in helping to use surplus toll revenue to build other projects.
The surplus could come when toll road bonds are paid off or if more vehicles than anticipated pay to use the road.
North Texas officials so far have shied away from discussions of using excess toll money for rail. Mr. Morris vowed to try to keep road and rail funding separate and to continue pushing for a sales tax increase because its revenue rises predictably with inflation.
"I'm always an optimist," said Mr. Morris, who plans to make his case to state leaders next month.
The transportation council, made up of 40 mostly elected city and county officials, will review the mobility authority possibilities in the next several months. While many on the transportation council reserved judgment on the matter, several members said it was the best chance to reduce the estimated $55 billion backlog of projects the region will have in the next few decades.
"Our success in the future will be on us continuing to realize at some point we have to help our brothers and sisters out with projects," said Tarrant County Commissioner B. Glen Whitley.
Dallas County Judge Margaret Keliher, who is not on the transportation council, questions the need for a new mobility authority, arguing that Dallas County could lose transportation revenue under the proposal.
"The NTTA has been our tollway authority. Others are trying to undo that," she said. "If they are successful, where does that leave Dallas County, which has been paying tolls for so long already?"
The North Texas mobility authority would keep excess toll money in the immediate area of where it was raised, Mr. Morris said. For example, any excess toll revenue collected on a State Highway 161 toll road through Irving and Grand Prairie would help pay for projects in those cities or possibly southwest Dallas County.
E-mail thartzel@dallasnews.com
© 2005 The Dallas Morning News Co www.dallasnews.com
Group would allocate cash to projects that don't use road fees
Friday, November 11, 2005
By TONY HARTZEL
The Dallas Morning News
Copyright 2005
ARLINGTON – Area leaders took an important step Thursday toward creating a regional agency that could eventually shift money collected from toll roads to other projects.
The Regional Transportation Council will consider creating an umbrella financial agency covering from nine to 17 counties that could collect and distribute excess toll revenue to projects without tolls.
Such an arrangement would mark a dramatic shift from the practice of using toll money only to build other toll roads.
The transportation-funding concept, known as a regional mobility authority, has been adopted in several other areas of Texas in recent years to pay for new road and possibly rail construction. With the longstanding presence of the North Texas Tollway Authority, local officials have resisted the idea, saying the region could handle matters with existing agencies.
"We are at the point in our history where we have to reinforce that we are one region," said Michael Morris, director of transportation for the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
The idea of sharing toll revenue for other projects is beginning to take hold in the region. The tollway authority's board of directors will consider a proposal today that would allow it to pay the state $200 million to $345 million to build a toll road on State Highway 121 in Collin County. That money would be used to build other projects in the region or Highway 121 area.
The council will send a letter notifying the Texas Department of Transportation that it will take the first steps in reviewing the creation of a regional mobility authority for roads.
Regional resistance toward a mobility authority has eased recently because of several policy changes: The state transportation department now expects payments – usually in the hundreds of millions of dollars – if another agency builds a toll road on state property; and officials in Parker County, which lies within the proposed North Texas agency boundary, have proposed to create their own mobility authority.
In addition, a group of 22 state legislators has told local leaders that it appears highly unlikely that the region will be successful in its push to get a half-percent sales tax increase to use to build 260 miles of commuter rail.
"This source of revenue seems to be highly unlikely within the near future due to other needs for sales tax revenue at the state level," wrote Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, and Rep. Fred Hill, R-Richardson, in a letter to local officials that was co-signed by seven other state senators and 13 other state representatives.
If created, the agency as conceived by local officials would differ from mobility authorities in other parts of Texas, which have substantial power to select toll roads and oversee a host of transportation projects, including rail lines. In North Texas, the agency would have a more limited role in helping to use surplus toll revenue to build other projects.
The surplus could come when toll road bonds are paid off or if more vehicles than anticipated pay to use the road.
North Texas officials so far have shied away from discussions of using excess toll money for rail. Mr. Morris vowed to try to keep road and rail funding separate and to continue pushing for a sales tax increase because its revenue rises predictably with inflation.
"I'm always an optimist," said Mr. Morris, who plans to make his case to state leaders next month.
The transportation council, made up of 40 mostly elected city and county officials, will review the mobility authority possibilities in the next several months. While many on the transportation council reserved judgment on the matter, several members said it was the best chance to reduce the estimated $55 billion backlog of projects the region will have in the next few decades.
"Our success in the future will be on us continuing to realize at some point we have to help our brothers and sisters out with projects," said Tarrant County Commissioner B. Glen Whitley.
Dallas County Judge Margaret Keliher, who is not on the transportation council, questions the need for a new mobility authority, arguing that Dallas County could lose transportation revenue under the proposal.
"The NTTA has been our tollway authority. Others are trying to undo that," she said. "If they are successful, where does that leave Dallas County, which has been paying tolls for so long already?"
The North Texas mobility authority would keep excess toll money in the immediate area of where it was raised, Mr. Morris said. For example, any excess toll revenue collected on a State Highway 161 toll road through Irving and Grand Prairie would help pay for projects in those cities or possibly southwest Dallas County.
E-mail thartzel@dallasnews.com
© 2005 The Dallas Morning News Co
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Friday, November 11, 2005
<< Home